Coming Home With Brunello di Montalcino

The Annata 2013 are perhaps the most diverse sangiovese the region has produced in a very long time
by Michael Godel

Montalcino

Benvenuto Brunello is the highlight of many people’s calendar, for good reason, because there are few wines that can match its depth, class, character and structure. No one of sound mind passes up the opportunity to taste a pile of Brunello from Montalcino. And those who know understand the remarkable fact that it is indeed quite special to find such a level of consistency across a spectrum of very high end wines.

The travelling Brunello experience is taking place in the Consorzio’s 52nd year, now in the hands of Patrizio Cencioni, Chairman and President of The Consorzio Vino Brunello di Montalcino and Vice Presidents Tommaso Cortonesi, Andrea Machetti and Riccardo Talenti. On March 5th, 2018 the 27th road show came to the Carlu in Toronto and I had the ambassadorial pleasure of presenting the wines alongside Brunello Consorzio Director Giacomo Pondini. The session was just the third international presentation of the new vintage of Brunello, the first having taken place in New York and Chicago in late January and the second just over two weeks ago in the Chiostro Museo Montalcino. That the Consorzio continues to view Canada as such an important market and partner speaks volumes about our longstanding relationship with Italia, Toscana and Montalcino.

We all remember our first love. We may hide the memory away and rarely speak of it but it’s always there. For me, Brunello di Montalcino was my first. In the spring and summer of 1987 I was a naive young McGill University student living in Siena. Bad hair, bad clothes, not a care in the world. My professor from the University of Toronto knew quite a lot about the wines of Toscana so when we made a class pilgrimage to Montalcino he asked if anyone would like to join him for wine tasting at the Enoteca di Fortezza during the afternoon break. All of my classmates opted for a siesta in the July shade and this at a time when there were no cell phones, computers or tablets to distract us from actually learning something. I was the only one who chose to accompany Professor Wollesen to the fortress.

In retrospect, what happened over those next few hours changed my life. It might have done the same for my classmates were they to taste, guided by a man of sangiovese experience, though 30 samples of Brunello di Montalcino 1982. If only I knew then even a fraction of what I have learned since, what value that would be for me now. No matter, for I have Professor Wollesen to thank for introducing me to the world of Brunello. And here we are.

At the Chiostro Museo Montalcino with Consorzio Vice-President Tommaso Cortonesi

Last month I came to Montalcino for the second straight year to assess the presentation of the current Annata and along with tasting more than a hundred of those architectural 13s I went out into the field to visit important vineyards. Because two ears are better than one mouth I also spent time listening in with other journalists and with producers to get a consensus on the vintage. In 2018 there isn’t one and in my view, that is a very good thing.

The mixed messaging coming from talk about the 2013 Brunello may seem confounding but as Mark Twain wrote, “it were not best that we should all think alike; it is difference of opinion that makes horse races.” Thinking about a year like 2013 makes for a terrifically exasperating enigma because it presents a very particular kind of challenge. To some it was a case of extreme or at least unusual and unsettling weather patterns and the many shifts made harvest and winemaking decisions crucial, but also far from universally obvious. The vintage is to me a head scratcher because of how many opinions I’ve heard expressed as to its overall quality. I like to refer to the wines as ones of structural expressionism but however you choose to qualify them, the Annata wines are perhaps the most diverse that Montalcino has produced in a very long time.

The 2013 vintage began with a rainy and snowy winter. The spring was cold and the rain played havoc on bud break and development. Veraison was very slow. The harvest for many took place in late September through the first week of October. A common play for journalists or anyone trying to assess a vintage like 2013 is to lay blame on and conversely congratulations to producers who choose to pick their fruit at one junction or another. In this case, either before or after the September rains. If we have learned anything from Montalcino, where your estate vineyard or vineyard holdings are located will determine when, how and why you make your decisions. Every cru, block, plot and row carries a specific picking window and in 2013 even further under the microscope. It would be fruitless to try to generalize and to say that the greatest wines were made because they were picked before or after one pinpointed day during harvest.

So, are the 2013s much better than the 2012s? Do they exhibit more character, structure and depth? I would say better is the wrong word, especially because we are discussing sangiovese, all of which, as I’ve said many times before, are snowflakes. As for character, structure and depth? Many wines speak of all three and many more will, in time, even if many of you are not yet convinced that this will happen. I am confident that history will be kind, even apologetic, to the 2013 Brunelli and in turn, the wines and their producers will look forward to reconciling with the early naysayers. Diplomacy, kindness and patience will reward us all.

Brunello di Montalcino is referred to as “a very modern and ingenious intuition,” a phrase that so aptly depicts how it has separated itself from other sangiovese producing neighbours, namely Chianti Classico and Vino Nobile di Montepulciano. Only the Brunelli are possessive of a very certain and special sort of sangiovese aromatic liqueur, an amalgamation of deep, dark cherry, fresh leather, earth and flowers that differs from the others. Brunello also carries its own unique type of acidity and a fineness of tannin that speaks to how the grapes develop on the slopes and in the valleys below.

What about the long-employed term sangiovese grosso? The word we know as Brunello translates loosely to “little dark one”, in reference to the local vernacular name for sangiovese grosso, “fat sangiovese,” the large-berried form of sangiovese which grows in the area. While Brunello di Montalcino and the clonal sangiovese grosso have been symbiotically synonymous for decades, with clonal selection so varied, in today’s modern Brunello lexicon it is simply sangiovese that speaks to the grape of the famous wines.

As with anywhere grapes are grown, your vineyard passes must act on phenolic ripeness and when it hits, the qualities that come along for the ride in that package are the ones you must work with. The best wines are the ones that speak this truth so if your site achieves optimum ripeness with dark fruit and generous alcohol, make that wine. If its ripe centre includes transparent, lithe and verdant fruit, make and own that elegant style of sangiovese. Be true to variety and location. In Montalcino this is the greatest compliment you can pay to your vines and your fruit.

To gain a keen understanding of what separates one bottle of Brunello di Montalcino from another, especially when trying to compare and contrast from a specific Annata, I would suggest you concentrate on the location of the vineyards that produce the fruit. In some cases it’s a cru or a single estate set of blocks and in others a gathering of sangiovese from several locations. The advantage of the latter is the ability of multiple fruit sources to mitigate the deficiencies of one through support by the others. It also helps to create a house or estate style.

You have to know where you are relative to the hill of Montalcino; south, north, northeast, northwest, far south and even more specifically, from which block and micro-climate you farm within that zone. You have to consider the zones; running clockwise from the centre of the region, first on the hill of Montalcino (together with La Croce and Canalicchio), next to the north we have Montosoli, then to Torrenieri in the northeast, to the east – Pianelli, the southeast – Castelnuovo dell’Abate, extreme south-southwest – Sant’Angelo in Colle, southwest – Tavernelle and Camigliano, to the west Casanuovo and finally Bosco, to the northwest. While some zones are more widely recognized than others it is important to associate each with the style of wines they are prone to produce. Our goal here is not to dwell too much on sub-zones and it often requires great generalizations to try to do so, but it is still a very useful tool to align your palate and to gain an understanding of Montalcino’s diversity through multiple places of origin.

In the 1970s the number of Brunello di Montalcino producers increased to 25 vintners producing approximately 70,000 cases. According to the Consorzio del Vino Brunello di Montalcino, 120 producers made 300,000 cases of wine in 1995. Today, there are well over 200 producers in the Consorzio producing more than 500,000 cases of Brunello.

Before I get to the 83 Rosso and Brunello tasted and reviewed in Montalcino, at the Toronto seminar we poured, compared and contrasted 10 Brunello di Montalcino, eight from the current Annata, including one Cru, plus a 2011 Vigna and 2012 Riserva. Here are my tasting notes, replete with background information on those 10 wines.

From the northern hillside vineyard of five hectares facing south next to Caparzo’s La Casa and one of the most historical vineyards in all of Montalcino. Montosoli is blessed of an ancient limestone soil and an exceptional 360 degree exposure. It combines 380m of elevation and great quality Galestro in clay, was first produced in 1975 and only in years deemed worthy of its abilities. It is traditionally aged for four years prior to release; at least two years in Slavonian oak barrels, three to four months in medium-toast Allier barriques, and four months in bottle. If the normale is rich and elegant this is fuller, bigger, uncanny of that omniscient blueberry fruit and unlike any other Brunello in all of Montalcino. Is it the clone, the rocks, the place? What is it? Is is a different grape? No, it’s the terroir. But how? The Montosoli clone, mixed with the land and farmed by the people. True-blue, more than just climat-esque in Montalcino? Yes. How else to explain it. Drink 2021-2035. Tasted February and March 2018.

In Montalcino you can find Cupano on 34 hectares of land in Tavernelle on the stony hill of a rolling plain above the Ombrone River. Their seven hectares of vines (three of which are new) grow at an average altitude of 200 metres on terroir with good drainage and high mineral content at the far edges of the territory. Their organic and biodynamic estate is a cultural marriage between Ornella Tondini, an Italian, and her husband Lionello Cousin, a Frenchman. They credit great mentors; Henri Jayer from Bourgogne who is a firm believer that wine is made in the vineyard, no chemical fertilizers or pesticides, low yields, native yeasts, malolactic on the lees and aging in French barriques over Botti. Carlo Ferrini selected the land for the vines and the vine-stocks, the growth system and the height of the vines. François Bouchet introduced the idea of biodynamics and finally, approval from the great sangiovese enologist Giulio Gambelli. From “a regular Tuscan summer which led to a good ripeness and structure,” Lionello Cousin feels “pretty confident of 2013’s potential.” If the early presence of even-tempered and richly endowed fruit showing its flesh through well-aligned teeth is any indication than longevity will be a real asset to this Brunello. Everything points forward and there is zero doubt as to the passion, attention and provenance paid to the method, the gurus and the teachers. This is sangiovese worked by the hands of agriculturalists and winemakers on the ball, present at all times. It does not speak of consulting oenology popping in and out of view. Very special and singular in kind. Drink 2020-2030. Tasted March 2018.

In 1998 when she went out on her own to create a new project and in reaction to the fact that wineries in Montalcino did not trust a female cellar master, Donatella created the first all-female run winery in Italy. It is now an estate run by a team of no fewer than eight passionate women. The restored Casato Prime Donne is on the northern side of Montalcino, with sandy clay soils and has been in Donatella Cinelli Colombini’s family since the end of the 16th century. Of the total surface of 40 hectares, 16.5 are planted to sangiovese and are cultivated organically. Aging for the first year was in (5-7 hL) tonneaux and then continued in (15-40 hL) Allier wood and Slavonian oak casks. The wine comes from six small vineyards in a 10 hectare area surrounding Casato Prime Donne. Donatella describes 2013 as “an old style vintage, a Brunello that is elegant, complex, deep and harmonious, that will last decades. The scarce vintages are nearly always the higher quality ones.” There have been exceptional wines from Donatella in the recent past but the most impressive thing she can do is make a great wine in a challenging vintage. This 2013 does what needs; it’s delicately passed fruit avoids the intensity and drying angst of others, keeping the bright faith, binding it to tannin through the coursing dialectical collection of acidities and then making a valid request for patience. All 2013 Brunello need time, some will never come into their marriages and others, like the ’13 from Casato Prime Donne are already there. It will go further than many. Drink 2020-2029. Tasted February and March 2018

Fanti’s 10 hectares of 20-30 year old vines have been developed in the amphitheatre of the south facing hills of Castelnuovo dell’Abate, at 350-430m, a part of which are quite proximate to the Roman Basilica of Sant’Antimo. This seems to be the optimum age for vines in Montalcino and for the production of a classic, estate or house style. Also a matter of manual harvest and the use of the sorting tables. Their Brunello is a classic expression of a gathered terroir. Ageing is done in part French oak barriques and partly in medium capacity (3,000L) casks for a minimum of 24 months (usually 28). Before release the wine is bottle-aged for a minimum of four (but usually up to 12) further months. Fanti’s 2013 is a deeply swelling affair of cherry liqueur and fresh leather, rich, decisive and quite intense. The liquid gelée is fully and completely welling in fruit and earth with more tonic and fine bitters in linger than most. This is a very specific sangiovese with a composed and singular style, chalky, variegated and gregarious. It will have many fans on restaurant lists all over the greater diaspora for Brunello. Drink 2019-2024. Tasted February and March 2018.

On 25 hectares with 16 planted south of Montalcino around Camigliano, in an area dense with Mediterranean scrub lying between the Tyrrhenian Sea and the Val d’Orcia. The vines look south towards Monte Amiata and west towards the valleys of the Maremma. Sassocheto is Il Grappolo’s iconic Brunello made from 20 year-old vines in the south-facing Piano Nero vineyard, planted at 300 metres of elevation in deep, pebble-rich schist soils with decomposed rocks of galestro, alberese, and sandstone. The wine ferments in temperature-controlled open vats and is given a lengthy maceration; it then matures at least 24 months in French and Slavonian oak barrels and a further 6/12 months in the bottle. Without equivocation and to keep us comfortably seated in the plush authenticity of traditional Brunello it is Sassocheto that confirms our notion of a sangiovese-Montalcino world. Should Il Grappolo’s be considered as more traditional than most? Yes, but just as this 2013 tells us with utmost clarity, the vernacular is spoken through an ever evolving and forward thinking lens. No pretence and all in for the right reasons. Drink 2020-2029. Tasted March 2018

La Colombina di Caselli Anna Maria is the full name, a small three hectare estate in Castelnuovo dell’Abate, bordering on both the Ciacci and Uccelliera estates. The vineyards have been in the Caselli family for generations. Though they had always chosen to sell the grapes rather than bottle their own wines it was in 1997 when they converted to specialist wine growing with the planting of the three hectares and released their first wines in 2001. The Brunello is aged in a combination of barriques and tonneaux plus Bottle aging for eight to 10 months. Castelnuovo dell’Abate is one of Montalcino’s hottest sub-zones, protected from cold easterly winds by the extinct Amiata volcano and open to briny hot Mediterranean winds on from the west. The speciality of this zone and micro-climate bring great structure to La Colombina’s sangiovese though in 2013 a concentrated effort to emit amenable and enjoyable fruit puts this in an earlier frame of mind. That said it will outlast the ’12, a wine of fine liqueur. This is surely a consistent follow-up to that wine. Drink 2019-2023. Tasted March 2018

Since 1996 Corte Pavone has been owned by Rainer Loacker and his sons, Hayo and Franz. Hayo is the winemaker. It is located in the Casanuova area to the west of Montalcino with hillside clay soils upwards of 450-500m, certainly one of the higher elevations in the territory. Much of the 90 hectares of the estate is covered with meadows and forests. Only four hectares are dedicated to vineyards with vine age 30-35 years old and with a plan of converting another four also blessed with the best exposures. The organic wines are aged in Slavonian casks, French Barrique and Austrian oak barrels. Rainer Loacker is from the family that owns Biscotti Loacker and Remedia Loacker which produces and markets enzymes and other natural nutrients. He also owns Tenuta Schwarthof near Bolzano in Alto-Adige and Valdifalco in the Maremma. We often think about Brunello as coming from either northern or southern vineyards. In Casanuova and what separates it from other zones is the consideration of its western position and how the vineyards are affected by a closer proximity to the sea. More than this is the great altitude so that a cooler prevalence and diurnal temperature swing means Brunello of higher acidity. Though quite approachable for Montalcino sangiovese this ’13 is also reductive, fresh, energetic and its tones are set to high. Great food Brunello. Drink 2018-2026. Tasted March 2018

Pierluigi Tagliabue purchased the “healthy hill” Villa Poggio Salvi in 1979, now 21 hectares of vineyards owing its name to its historical location on the south side of Montalcino, overlooking the Tyrrhenian Sea. The altitude is between 300 and 500 meters, with a rich weave of clay soils and a beneficial breeze. Pierluigi Tagliabue’s grandson Luca Belingardi is the winemaker. The Brunello spends 30 months in oak casks plus a minimum 6 months in bottle. The 2013 is an agriculturally clean, sound and precise wine meeting a viniculture on the same, extended plain for sangiovese of substance, passion and flare. This is quite tart and angular though only because the structure is meant for a launch forward, beyond the turn of the decade and forward to the next. Drink 2021-2028. Tasted February and March 2018

Having tasted the follow-up 2012 a year earlier in Montalcino made for more than a curious moment to look at this 2011 one year later and in Toronto. Nothing against the rock solid ’12 but this vintage is simply glorious. Waiting 12 months was not just worth it but clearly essential. The walls have come down, the sea departed, volcano stepped aside and all that is right in a Castelnuovo dell’Abate Brunello world is also righteous and beautiful. Some of Montalcino’s most famous and iconic wines have come from Stefano Cinelli Colombini and Fattoria Barbi, the oldest of which date back to 1870. There are two centuries of history with thanks to Francesca Colombini. The Vigna del Fiore “vineyard of the flower” or maybe “flower garden vineyard” is unique to Castelnuovo dell’Abate, one of the oldest (and furthest south) in Montalcino. The block is just under six hectares from an area where vines have been cultivated since the XVI century. It sits on the top of a hill that descends toward the Asso and Orcia rivers and faces Mt. Amiata. The hill is a natural corridor between Montalcino and Mt. Amiata and it connects the Crete Senesi in the Val d’Orcia and the basin of the Ombrone valley as you head to the sea. The production varies a lot; in some years it is not produced and at a maximum it reaches the 13,000 bottles range. The first vintage was 1981, chosen to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Francesca Colombini Cinelli. Aged in small to medium size (that is 5-20 hL) oak barrels for the first months, it completes the aging in larger oak barrels for a total period of two years and then is bottled at least four months before it’s released. The oenologist is Paolo Salvi. This represents what matters in terms of Vigna-designate Brunello and what it means compared to broader expressions drawn from and combining several vineyards. So close to drinking perfectly but to tell you the truth, you don’t have to wait. Drink 2019-2033. Tasted March 2018

Massimo Ferragamo purchased the 2,000 hectare estate in 2003. With close to 60 hectares planted at 350-450 metres to sangiovese, Castiglion del Bosco produces three wines: Brunello di Montalcino, the single-vineyard Campo del Drago and this Millicento Riserva. Located in the northwestern part of the zone, an isolated tract of wild forest surrounds the vineyards, all part of the Val d’Orcia Artistic, Natural and Cultural Park. The organically farmed vines were planted in 1998 and some new planting took place after the purchase in 2003. There are two distinct growing sections, the 20-hectare Gauggiole vineyard, just beneath the borgo and Capanna, with 40 hectares. As for soils, it was five million years ago that sea levels dropped leaving sand and clay deposits across the Val d’Orcia. The Radicofani and Amiata volcano eruptions also spread a dark magma known as trachite, resulting in a soil mixture perfect for growing sangiovese. Marl and Galestro predominate. Since the debut vintages, winemaker Cecilia Leoneschi has decreased both the predominance of barriques and the amount of new oak. Since the 2012 harvest the Millicento Riserva has only been aged in 33 hectoliter casks, but sees an additional year in bottle. This is just the third vintage of this bottling and the first to set the record straight because the vintage is a true barometer of what it is to benefit from an extra year of aging. The effect of altitude and a surround sound of forest solicits the gelid savour and cool, elemental, semimetal, crystalline coal streak that runs through the luxuriance of mahogany fruit. Brunello has the ability to layer density and weightlessness in a way that is impossible yet understood. Like here, in the Castiglion del Bosco Millicento 2012. Drink 2019-2030. Tasted March 2018

La Casa Vineyard, Montalcino

The FUTURE’S SO SUB-ZONE WE’VE GOT TO DRAW MAPS

“Montalcino is too small for micro-zones,” explains La Mannella’s Tommaso Cortonesi. “We have to communicate about winery crus or zones, this will be beneficial for the territory, but 95 per cent of consumers have no idea where Montalcino is, so why do we need to divide it up into micro-zones? Cru, but nut sub-zones.” It’s true, each producer knows the soil, the vines, the specifics of their cru and what needs to be done to make the best wine possible from that cru.”You have the exult the main characteristic of your single-vineyard. You can talk about freshness in the north, but not in the warner parts of the south. And you have to work in the right way to exult the freshness or conversely the big body possibility of that area. Work woith what the zone gives you.” Generally speaking, the northern side has much more vigour, on more clay and more water, where green harvest at least once or twice must be performed. On the southern side the yields are lower.

My friend and colleague Monty Waldin wrote “there’s no better way to understand this intriguing wine than to seek out the single-vineyard expressions.” Identifiable single-vineyard Brunello will more than likely be completely different from one other, “proof, if it were needed, that differences between Brunello terroirs are something that can unite rather than divide the region.” But there is also the concept of single vineyards versus single terroirs. The latter is also a good way to divide and make sense of the region.

Many have raised the question “to zone or not to zone,” a debate hotly contested for years but still with no clear answer. Is Montalcino ready for sub-zones or is it still far too early, decades early even, to be expecting this shift? Does zoning runs the risk of giving imprecise and misleading evaluations? Are many more years of experience required to figure out where (as in Bourgogne) are the locations of the best soils and cru? Is it not generally agreed already which ones these are? Remember that sangiovese is the only grape allowed in Brunello, is notoriously site-sensitive and performs differently depending on its environment. Do the producers know with certainty where it consistently works the best?

One way to look at Montalcino is as an inverted cone with its peak just south of the town of Montalcino (think of dividing the square into four isosceles triangles as shown on the map, with the center forming the apex of the cone). From the center, the slopes generally descend out- ward across the region. It thus becomes apparent that one of the most influential variables in the character of these wines is altitude. This wine zone enjoys a Mediterranean climate as well as high altitudes that provide a cooling effect that is beneficial to the grapes and prevents disease. The differences in altitude and exposition throughout the zone play a substantial role in the vegetal cycle of the vines. Due to high altitudes, cooling conditions from winds and evening temperature drops sustain a slower cycle in vineyards. It is important to note that all variables are not constant and generalizations can oversimplify a complex subject. Individual site soil, exposure, viticulture and vinification technique, producer style, and vintage conditions can change these characteristics.

Tasting Altesino and Caparzo with Elisabetta Gnudi Angelini

Here are the links to my reviews on the wines tasted in Montalcino and in Toronto; 62 Brunello and 21 Rosso.

Wine is one of the most civilized things in the world and one of the most natural things of the world that has been brought to the greatest perfection, and it offers a greater range for enjoyment and appreciation than, possibly, any other purely sensory thing.